Contents

Early
career

Yorath was an apprentice at Leeds United signing professional
forms at the age of 17. Along with other Leeds midfield players of
the time, such as Mick Bates and Terry Hibbitt, he
found it difficult to establish himself ahead of Don Revie's preferred
pairing of Billy
Bremner and Johnny
Giles. Between 1967 and 1972 he made just 14 League appearances
for Leeds.

Leeds
career

In the 1972–73 season, injuries and suspensions allowed Yorath
to establish himself as a first team regular. However, his first
season ended with two cup final runners-up medals; he was a
substitute in the 1973 FA Cup
Final, which Leeds lost 1–0 to Sunderland, and also appeared in the
1973 UEFA
Cup Winners' Cup Final, which Leeds lost in controversial
circumstances to AC Milan.

Yorath finally won some silverware the following 1973–74 season,
where he was a key member of the Leeds championship winning side.
The 1974–75 season saw Leeds reach the final of the UEFA European
Cup, but again Yorath ended up with a runners up medal as Leeds
lost 2–0 to Bayern Munich in controversial
circumstances.

Yorath, a defensive hard-tackling midfielder had to suffer a lot
of barracking from supporters who saw him as lacking the skills of
his team-mates.

Don Revie had left Leeds to manage England, and his eventual
replacement Jimmy
Armfield decided to dispense with Yorath's services in 1976,
selling him to Coventry City for £125,000. During
his time with Leeds, Yorath made 120 appearances and scored ten
goals.

Coventry
City

Terry Yorath would be captain to one of only a handful of top
flight Coventry City sides that spent an entire season in the top
ten. Spearheaded by the prolific strike partnership of Ian Wallace and Mick Ferguson, and
ably abetted by the legendary winger Tommy Hutchison and attacking full
backs Graham Oakey
and Bobby MacDonald, the Sky Blues would enjoy a 7th place finish
in the 1977/78 season, narrowly missing out on European football.
Yorath's Coventry side containing such notables as Alan Green, McDonald and
Mick Coop are still
fondly remembered even today by the Sky Blue faithful. A remarkable
5-4 win over Norwich City at Highfield Road, Christmas 1977,
replete with bicycle kick by Ian Wallace and last gasp
penalty save by Jim
Blyth, lives long in Coventry folklore. Yorath is also one of
an exclusive band of Coventry City captains that can proudly boast
that they were able to pull on the infamous 'Chocolate away'
strip.

Yorath remained at Coventry for three years, playing 99 games
and scoring three goals and was captain for most of this period. He
moved onto Tottenham Hotspur in 1979 for
£300,000, and then briefly to Vancouver Whitecaps in 1981,
where he made 59 appearances, scoring four goals in his two seasons
with the club.

International career

Yorath picked up the first of 59 Welshcaps in 1970 against Italy, and he maintained a
regular presence in the international side until 1981. Yorath also
captained his country on 42 occasions.

Management
career

In 1982, Yorath joined Bradford City as player/assistant
coach. He was injured during the Bradford fire
disaster in 1985 when he was forced to jump out of a window after
evacuating supporters from a bar. He subsequently took up the
manager's position at Swansea City in
1986, and led the club to promotion from the Division Four to the Division Three at the
end of the 1987–88 season.

In 1989, he was appointed part-time manager of Wales, eventually taking
up the post on a full-time basis whilst still managing Swansea.
However, this caused conflict with the club, and Yorath left
Swansea to manage Bradford. Unfortunately, he was dismissed by
Bradford after just one year in charge, and returned to manage
Swansea again.

In 1991, after a run of nine consecutive defeats, he left
Swansea for a second time to concentrate on managing Wales. Despite
some splendid results, Yorath was unable to lead his country to the
1994 World Cup finals, and was dismissed by the Welsh FA.

Yorath joined Cardiff City as General Manager in
1994, and assumed control of team affairs in November of that year
when manager Eddie May
was sacked. However, his time in the hotseat with the Bluebirds was
brief, and he was sacked in March 1995 with the club headed for
relegation. He then took over as coach of the Lebanon national
team, and helped them rise 60 places in the FIFA World Rankings
before leaving in 1997.

Between 1997 and 2000 he worked as a coach at Huddersfield Town and Bradford
City, before joining Sheffield Wednesday as
assistant to Paul
Jewell. Yorath retained his position when Jewell was dismissed,
and eventually became manager in 2001. However, he resigned in 2002
after a run of five defeats in six league matches saw Wednesday
drop into the relegation zone.

In June 2008, Yorath returned to football when he was appointed
the director of football at Isthmian League Premier Division side
Margate,[1] where
his brother Dai and nephew Dean had both played. On 21 November
2008, he was appointed manager of the club after Barry Ashby was sacked.
However, Yorath resigned as Margate manager on 24 September 2009
following a run of disappointing results, leaving Neville
Southall in temporary charge of the team.

Personal
life

Terry is the father of four children, two girls Gabby, the television
broadcaster, born 1973, and Louise, born 1974, and two boys Daniel
born on 25 July 1976 and Jordan born 1986. He has two grandchildren
born to Gabby, Lois and Reuben born 2005. Daniel collapsed and died
on 25 May 1992 in his garden, at the age of 15, as a result of an
undetected heart condition just before he was due to begin a
footballing career with Leeds United.

In 2004, Yorath was arrested after a car accident and charged
with drink driving. Yorath knocked down 27-year-old call centre
worker Raziya Aslam breaking her pelvis. Yorath pleaded guilty to
all charges and received a 30-month driving ban and 60 hours
community service. The trial judge had been seriously considering a
prison sentence for Yorath, but his defence advised that there was
a risk that Yorath would commit suicide if sent to prison. Yorath
maintains that he would not have taken his own life if he had been
jailed.[2]